When you grow up in The City, you tend to pick up some strange understandings of how the world works. On my walk to work today, I was reminded of one such “understanding”.

When I was a wee lad, I thought that all snow followed the same “life cycle”. It came down and accumulated as white, then, as it “ripened”, it turned various shades of brown, before finally turning black and going away. Snow that fell in the grassy areas of Central Park just “ripened” more slowly.

I remember making a snowball from the snow on my windowsill and putting it in the freezer. A few days later, I was disappointed because it didn’t “ripen”. I remember commenting to my mother about how we got a bad batch of snow.

Looking back on it now, it’s amazing she never had me committed.

[photo via me]

Related posts:

1. There’s snow in Central Park!
2. Great snowball alert
3. Snow Removal Much?
4. First Snow in Astoria
5. It’s a crapstorm